Detroit Tigers: Fire Ausmus Now, Let’s See What Vizquel Can Do

Can you name a single instance this season, in which a decision made by manager Brad Ausmus actually won the Detroit Tigers a game this season? Neither can I.

OK, there are a couple times where he brought in Joakim Soria for a four out save, and the Alex Wilson five out save a couple weeks ago. But that’s it.

Not a single pinch hitting situation has worked. None of the times he decides to leave in a starter does it pan out, and for the most part, same with relief, either. Leaving Joba Chamberlain in to face Pedro Alvarez after allowing two monster blasts to Pirates hitters in the same inning was criminal. Chamberlain of course gave up another bomb to Alvarez, and Manager Brad finally trotted out to put Chamberlain out of his misery, and basically out of a Tigers uniform. He was released a week and a half later.

Three weeks later after he killed Joba, Manager Brad was at it again against the Mariners, in what was a “must win” game at the time. Up by two runs to begin the 8th inning, Manager Brad brought in newly acquired Neftali Feliz, who was released by the Texas Rangers a week and a half earlier because he’s terrible. Feliz promptly allowed a run on a wild-pitch, and then loaded the bases for Franklin Gutierrez.

Having absolutely zero feel for the situation, nor the ability to see his pitcher simply did not have it that night, Manager Brad again left a guy out there in an obviously bad situation. Of course, Gutierrez hit a go-ahead grand slam, and the Tigers ended up losing 11-9.

What made the entire situation worse, was his explanation on why he had nobody even warming up in the bullpen, especially with Alex Wilson available, whose been the only decent relief man for the Tigers all season:

"I can’t use Wilson, because if we go extra innings I gotta have him available. So, he’s unusable unless something else happens"

In other words, while up two runs with only six outs to go, your current Detroit Tigers manager was basically planning to lose. Oh and the Mariners were second to last in all of baseball at the time in team hitting.

On Sunday, Manager Brad was up to his old tricks yet again: Planning on what could happen in the future, instead of dealing with the current situation at hand.

With the score tied at 5 in the ninth, Manager Brad decided to go with Tom Gorzelanny, who has a whopping 6.26 ERA so far this season, and had already been put on waivers this season but is so bad nobody wanted him. He gave up a triple to Jake Marisnick before Manager Brad pulled him for Wilson. The batter, was of course Jose Altuve, who has more hits than any batter in baseball since 2012, and he knocked in Marisnick on the first pitch.

Manager Brad’s reason for pitching to Altuve? Rookie Preston Tucker was on the bench:

"The problem with putting him on is that they have a guy that has killed us in Preston Tucker sitting on the bench that they can pinch-hit"

Admittedly, Tucker has been somewhat clutch against the Tigers this season, having two late home runs including the day before to go-ahead or tie the game. But you have to go with a rookie over one of the games best hitters. You have to.

It’s like beating a dead horse at this point, but Manager Brad doesnt know what he’s doing. He should of been gone with Dombrowski, and allowed to take some time off before taking the manager job in San Diego.

In the mean time, it is time to give Omar Vizquel a shot. The current first base coach played 24 years in the big leagues, and owns 11 gold gloves. With 45 games remaining, whats the worst that could happen? There is no possible way the Tigers club house has any faith in Manager Brad, and with a majority of our top players being from Latin-America, maybe the connection with Vizquel (a native of the Dominican Republic) could spark something in the team for next year.

If it doesn’t work, bring on Rod Gardenhire or maybe Terry Francona gets canned this offseason. Who knows. All that I know is Manager Brad needs to go immediately, and it should of happened a long time ago.